Release Notes: Version 7.64

Release Notes: Version 7.64

EchoSpan released version 7.64 of its 360-Degree Feedback platform on January 21, 2017. This is an interim release that includes new features and enhancements/fixes. The version 7.64 update is automatically applied to any new, blank project you create. Highlights of this release include:

Editable group report templates
Group Reports are now customizable in the same way as individual report templates. Group Reports allow you to create a PDF report containing the results of all or select Targets in your projects. Administrators can select which components are used for their group report from a list of 11 available components and customize the text and formatting of the report.

In addition to editability of templates, we have changed the calculation model for our standard group report so that all Targets' scores are evenly weighted. A summary of the new vs the old scoring models are below. The legacy group report template is still available for clients that wish to use it.

NEW GROUP REPORT SCORING MODEL
The results in the new group reports are calculated by taking the results from each individual Target’s report scores and averaging them together. This method weights each Target in the group evenly. All group report components are multi-project compatible as well.

LEGACY GROUP REPORT SCORING MODEL
Results for a group of Targets were calculated as if all Targets were a single Target. That is, all of their ratings were combined together and averaged as a whole. This calculation method had an inherent bias toward Targets with more ratings/Raters. The remains the calculation method on all legacy group report templates.

*This feature is available in the 360 Professional and Enterprise Editions

Development Planning enhancements
The Development Planning Tool now allows users to create custom goals that are not tied to a specific review item. Enhancements also include the addition of Metrics so that users can add weight, score, and a completion percentage to their goals. Finally, the user interface for editing plans and the administrator dashboard have been updated to support the new features.

*This feature is available in the 360 Professional and Enterprise Editions

Support for additional languages
The tool is now capable of handling another 80 languages, allowing you to administer 360-degree feedback in a total of 140 languages. You can apply your own translated content for review items, competencies, rating scales and relationship groups or choose from the tool's suggested translations.

In addition to the new languages, automated neural translation technology is now in use for the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Hindi and Vietnamese. Neural translations are more accurate than standard translations as they are translations of entire sentences rather than individual words or phrases.

*This feature is available in the 360 Professional and Enterprise Editions

Segmentation of percentiles and quartiles
You can now segment percentiles and quartiles by groups. This is useful when you want to compare sub-groups of Targets within a project (i.e. Executives, Managers, and Individual Contributors) rather than creating ranks scores for an entire project. Administrators can choose whether to show or hide these rank scores in the "individual items" and "competency summary" of report sections.

*This feature is available in the 360 Enterprise Edition

Update - Target selection of Raters
If your project is setup to allow Targets to select Raters, and Targets have to finalize their list of Raters (configured using the "Require Target to Finalize Rater List" Advanced Setting), the Raters will be in a "Needs Review" status until the Target finalizes their Rater list. Please note that some Raters may need to be moved into an "Approved" status prior to launching your reviews if some Targets did not finalize their lists. This prevents raters entered into incomplete lists from receiving reminder messages prematurely.

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Remember that you can update an existing project by opening the project and clicking "Upgrade Project" in the top right of the Home page if an update is available. Upgrades are available to clients without existing customizations. Note that if you clone a project that uses an older version of code, the new project will also be based on the older code and require an update.

Keep an eye out for additional new features coming soon. As always, we appreciate your feedback on our product and services.

As a reminder, we offer a question and answer session each week that is an open forum for customer questions. One of our Senior Client Service Managers leads the interactive session and will address any product questions you have. A link to the signup page is available here:

https://www.echospan.com/qa.asp .

Thank you for choosing EchoSpan for your employee feedback and review needs.